State At A Glance

August 07, 2007

BRISTOL -- In a federal lawsuit filed this month, Bristol patrol officers Greg Blackinton and Brian Andrews say Capt. Daniel McIntyre violated their constitutional rights. They contend that McIntyre singled them out for uncommonly harsh treatment while he was coordinating an investigation into relatively minor complaints from civilians.

EAST HARTFORD -- Police have arrested two family members suspected of attacking and severely beating two tow-truck drivers in March. James Jewell, 30, and Yolanda Jewell, 31, both of Tampa, Fla., were extradited recently and arraigned Monday in Superior Court in Manchester on charges resulting from the attack. The tow-truck drivers were beaten with baseball bats when they tried to tow a moving truck on Bell Court, where several of the Jewell family members had been living, police said.

HARTFORD -- The first year Eddie A. Perez was mayor, the city's employees' pension fund was still benefiting from the stock market gains of the 1990s, and the budget owed the pension fund nothing. But as employees retired early and the market went down, the city's contribution to the fund had to go up. The city hasn't always paid enough. Now it owes somewhere between $7 million and $12 million in back payments to its $1.2 billion fund. Perez says he's looking into the matter.

NEW BRITAIN -- The common council on Wednesday will discuss the sale of property to an expanding hospital, and an incentive package that has lured a food manufacturer to the old Fafnir Bearing Co. factory site. The council will decide whether to sell two Arch Street parcels for $22,000 to the Hospital of Central Connecticut at New Britain General. The council also will review a proposal to give $900,000 in financial assistance to Cakemaker LLC, a division of Celebration Foods, which is expected to move into a new facility at the Fafnir site next spring.

PORTLAND -- Town officials were disappointed when their quest for a public boat launch was thwarted because the proposed location was too close to the home of an endangered beetle. So officials turned their attention to an alternative site, town-owned property off Brownstone Avenue. But now it appears that costs related to the design of the launch and preparation of the surrounding area could hold up the project.

TOLLAND -- The compassion of retired computer consultant Richard Flower has led to a new program called ``Kids in Limos,'' which will provide critically ill children and their parents a free limousine ride to and from treatment sessions. The program, set to begin in September, will work with doctors, clinics and social agencies to meet the needs of critically ill children who need transportation to treatments.

WEST HARTFORD -- West Hartford police who spotted a stolen car in a Hartford neighborhood near the town line late Saturday got a bonus when they arrested the two men riding in the car. After investigating, police said, they learned that at least one of the men had allegedly burglarized the Walbridge Road home in West Hartford where the car was stolen July 31. Vladislav S. Gofman, 27, of West Hartford, and Pavel M. Kostyukov, 29, of Hartford, were charged with first-degree larceny.